Текст 1. Microsoft: Competition Only with Itself

Microsoft: Competition Only with Itself

Microsoft’s success is known to have begun when IBM asked it to develop an operating system for its new computer. So, MS-DOS appeared. Later such systems as DR-DOS and PC-DOS emerged, but Microsoft’s aggressive policy didn’t allow them to become popular.

In Russia the system PTS-DOS 9 (PTS means PhysTechSoft) was developed but there’s a doubt if it has been installed even in one per cent of computers in Russia. MS-DOS was regarded to be the most popular operating system until 1995.

In 1981 the first version of MS Windows was issued. It wasn’t an operating system, because when computer was started, it loaded MS-DOS, and later one could run Windows.

But Windows also became very popular. It was the first system that allowed to run more than one program at a time.

It wasn’t relevant for users in 1981, because most of them had no hard disk, but it was important for companies. And as computers have been developed, and hard disks appeared in every computer, and they began to grow (it’s difficult to believe, but 20 years ago we considered a hard disk which had the size of 40 Mb to be huge), Windows appeared in each computer.

IBM became the competitor of Microsoft, when it developed the operating system OS/2. This system is considered to be much better than Windows by a lot of specialists. But the fact is that it has never been installed in more than 10 % of computers throughout the world.

In 1995 Windows finally became an operating system. The system Windows’95 was issued. Nearly everyone thought that his duty was to abuse Windows’95 (in FIDO network it is called Must Die 95), but nearly everyone worked with this system.

When the market of operating systems was seized by Microsoft, it began seizing the market of the Internet browsers. Before that the leader of this market was the company Netscape, with its browser Netscape Navigator. And Microsoft having issued its Microsoft Explorer, there wasn’t any considerable reaction. By the end of 1997, 31 per cent of the market belonged to Microsoft Explorer.

Microsoft now is the only large company in the world that has no competitors.

Only Microsoft could grasp a giant market violating no rules. But it violated more than the USA federal laws – it disturbed the USA market traditions. According to these traditions, in every sector of the economy each major company has at least one major firm-competitor. There are Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Ford and General Motors, IBM and Apple, but Microsoft is singular.

Each major company gives an opportunity for the existence of many smaller firms. For example, Ford doesn’t make alarm systems, garages and radios for its cars. They are made by other smaller companies. But Microsoft itself sells each new version of Windows together with all necessary applications.

So Microsoft is very unpopular in the American business world.

Since 1990, scandals about Microsoft have been happening annually. It was already accused of an “anti-competition” agreement with IBM, attempting to monopolize the market of operating systems and their program security, and many other violations of anti-monopoly legislation.

Sometimes Microsoft won in these conflicts and sometimes it was defeated, but really it always remained a monopoly.

The reason of Microsoft’s great success is Bill Gates. His almost supernatural talent to foretell the market’s future is well known. He can guess which product he will be able to sell very profitably some years later, and so makes this product earlier than others.

For example, in 1990 Gates declared his new conception – “information on your fingertips”, and foretold the development of the world computer industry in 1990-2000. He said that in the nearest future everyone would have any information within one’s grasp – “on fingertips” – with a computer’s help. Now it has already become a reality – there is almost any information one could want in networks.

In 1995 Gates foretold that ten years later there would be pocket computers, car computers, PC-kiosks, and personal computers that understand the owner’s voice; that information would be accessible everywhere to everybody. A pocket computer will replace everything in a person’s pocket, except a handkerchief: a credit card, pager, notebook with modem. If you need a large screen, you can use a PC-kiosk. A pocket computer will be able to connect quickly to a PC-kiosk, or any other computer.

At present there already are hand-held PCs. Now they are not as perfect as Gates promised, but an operation system in them is Windows, they are Internet-ready, and they can be connected with common computers. This proves that everything Bill Gated promises is trustworthy.

At present Bill Gates wants to design a computer which will control all everyday apparatus at home. You will be able to operate with any apparatus, including lamps, from this computer.

In any case, there is already such a computer in Gates’ house, and through the Internet Gates can manipulate his apparatus even from the other side of the Earth. As yet, his forecasts aren’t completely realized, but they are sure to become reality in the nearest future.

Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. When did Microsoft’s success begin?

2. What were the reasons for Windows to become very popular?

3. What can be said about Gates’ conception “information on your fingertips”?

4. What size hard disk was considered to be huge 20 years ago?

5. Why is Microsoft unpopular in the American business world?

6. What are Bill Gates’ promises in computer industry?

7. What computer does Gated want to design?